“Please don’t kill me.” The words shocked him.
“Kill you? Why would we do that? We just want to talk to you,” Nate reassured her.
“No. He’ll kill me.”
“I have no intention of hurting you,” Jedidiah said soothingly, pulling a chair up to the bed. “I just want to ask you some questions.”
“Not you.” She pressed her lips together and turned her head away.
Jedidiah sat back, tapping his fingers on his knee. “Mrs. Hawkins, do you know Susannah Calhoun?”
Silence.
“Susannah’s been accused of killing Brick Caldwell,” Jedidiah continued, watching the woman carefully for any sign of interest. “I know she didn’t do it, Mrs. Hawkins, but no one can prove it. Unless you saw something that night.”
“Nothing. I saw nothing.” She glanced at Jedidiah, resolve in her dark eyes. “I’m sorry about Miss Calhoun. She’s a nice lady.”
“If she gets convicted, she’ll die, Mrs. Hawkins. Do you want that on your conscience?”
“I’m sorry,” was all she said.
“You know,” Nate mused, “we’re sure Susannah didn’t kill that Caldwell fellow. And Mrs. Hawkins here was the only other person there that night. How do we know she didn’t kill him? Might have been an accident.”
“Is that how it happened?” Jedidiah asked the woman. “Was there an accident?”
“It wasn’t me,” the woman said with such conviction that Jedidiah automatically believed her.
“Then who was it?” Nate asked. “We need your help, Mrs. Hawkins.”
The woman remained mute. Jedidiah pulled Nate aside for a whispered conversation.
“She’s not talking,” Jedidiah observed as the witness obstinately pressed her lips together. “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. Maybe she’ll talk to Susannah.”
“Good idea,” Nate said. “Why don’t you go get her, and I’ll stay here with Mrs. Hawkins?”
“Good plan,” Jedidiah approved. “Don’t let her out of your sight, Nate.”
“You can count on me,” Nate said.
Jedidiah clapped him on the back, then headed downstairs. It would only take a few moments to fetch Susannah—as long as she hadn’t bought out the whole mercantile.
Ten minutes later, Jedidiah stormed out of the Benediction Hotel, his fists clenched with fury. People cleared a path as he stalked down the street. By the time he reached the sheriff’s office, he could barely see through the red haze of rage.
Someone had taken Susannah from him.
Sheriff MacElroy looked up from behind his desk as Jedidiah all but knocked the door from the hinges.
“Where is she?” he snarled.
“She’s in back,” MacElroy said, standing. “Now, Marshal Brown, just calm down.”
“Calm down!” Jedidiah slammed his hands down on MacElroy’s desk. “You came into my hotel room and removed a prisoner from my custody without any authority whatsoever, then put her in the same prison as the bastard who tried to kill her! Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I’m the sheriff of this town, and I was trying to do you a favor.” MacElroy folded his arms across his chest and met Jedidiah’s gaze evenly. “Senator Caldwell was all set to remove her himself. I convinced him to do it my way. At least in my jail, she’s safe.”
“You had no right,” Jedidiah said, straightening. “Now get her out of there.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” MacElroy replied. “The Senator seems to think that you’ve taken advantage of Miss Calhoun, and the evidence seems to support his theory. Until I get word to the contrary, I’m afraid I have to keep her locked up for her own safety.”
“You can’t do this. She has to be in Denver tomorrow for a murder trial.”
“Then my men will escort her there, along with Senator Caldwell’s party.”
“You’re overstepping yourself, MacElroy,” Jedidiah warned.
“I’m trying to protect Miss Calhoun,” the sheriff corrected. “No one says you can’t come with us to Denver, Marshal. But you’re not going to be alone with that gal anymore. It’s for your best interest as well as hers. Senator Caldwell wants your badge. The way you’re acting, he might just get it.”
Jedidiah forced the anger back, forced himself to think. MacElroy was right. As long as Susannah was in jail, she was safe from anyone who might want to harm her.
“I’d like to see her,” he said calmly.
“She’s right back there,” MacElroy said with a wave of his hand. “I’ll give you five minutes, but that’s it.”
“I’m obliged.” Jedidiah stalked back toward the jail cells.
Susannah, dressed in her new blue and white dress, occupied the cell closest to the door, while Wayne Caldwell, surly and sulking, occupied the one farthest away from it. Jedidiah looked at Susannah, a pretty picture of innocence in a place that routinely housed murderers and drunks, and he felt the rage rising again. With effort, he restrained himself and stepped up to the bars of her cell.
“Jedidiah!” She reached for him through the bars, her long, slim fingers closing over his hands. “There was nothing I could do. The sheriff just took me away and brought me here.”
“I know.” He leaned closer, lowered his voice to a murmur. “I found Mrs. Hawkins.”
She gasped with surprise, joy lighting her features. Then Jedidiah glanced at Caldwell, and she schooled her expression to sobriety.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” he told her, reaching through the bars to touch her cheek.
“I know you will.” The utter faith in those lovely blue eyes humbled him. She looked at him as if her were a hero, when instead he felt like a failure. He wanted to rip away the bars with his bare hands and carry her away from this foul place.
“Jedidiah, don’t worry about me,” she said with a reassuring smile. “I’m not going anywhere, and I think Sheriff MacElroy is on our side. The senator wanted to take me to Denver himself, but the sheriff wouldn’t let him.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Do what you have to do to get me out of this place,” she said meaningfully. “I heard the senator say he wants to leave at one o’clock.”
“That gives me about an hour.”
“You can do it,” she said, then whispered, “I love you, Jedidiah.”
“I love you, too,” he murmured in return. “You know, it’s getting easier and easier to say.”
“Keep practicing,” she advised with a flirtatious grin.
He chuckled. “If you had agreed to marry me, you might not have ended up in here.”
“If I had agreed to marry you, the senator would definitely have had grounds to take your badge away,” she retorted. Then her voice softened. “When I do marry you, Jedidiah, it will be forever. That I promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” He drew her hand through the bars and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “I’ll be back before one o’clock.”
“I’ll be here,” she replied.
“Don’t say that!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jedidiah’s smile faded as he left the jail. Though he had put on a confident face for Susannah, he was more worried than he let on. It struck him as just too coincidental the way the Caldwell family kept trying to take Susannah away from him.
He went back to the clinic and told Nate what had happened.
“She hasn’t said a word,” Nate said. “In fact, it’s like she’s pretending I’m not even here.”
“She’s going to have to start talking,” Jedidiah said grimly. “I’m not letting Susannah leave with Caldwell at one o’clock. I’ve got a bad feeling about this whole situation.”
“I trust your instincts,” Nate said, “but what are you going to do? Break her out of jail?”
“If I have to.”
“You must be in love,” Nate teased as he followed Jedidiah back to Mrs. Hawkins’s bedside.
“I am.” Jedidiah glanced at his friend. “I’ll d
o anything I have to in order to save her.”
Nate let out a low whistle. “Boy, when you fall, you fall hard.”
“Tell me about it.” Jedidiah sat down in the chair at Mrs. Hawkins’s bedside. “Mrs. Hawkins, it’s Marshal Brown.”
The woman didn’t respond.
“Mrs. Hawkins,” he said again, “Susannah is in trouble. I need you to help me save her.”
She looked at him this time, but still said nothing.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Nate said, with a dark look at the uncooperative witness. “Maybe we should just put her in a jail cell until she’s ready to tell us what she knows.”
“No, not with Caldwell in there,” Jedidiah responded.
“Yeah, I forgot about old Wayne,” Nate replied.
“Wayne Caldwell is in jail?” Mrs. Hawkins blurted, surprising both of them.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jedidiah answered. “I put him there myself. He tried to kill Susannah, twice.”
“Susannah? Why in heavens name would he do that?” Her voice rose with agitation. “She didn’t see anything. Why would he try and hurt Susannah?”
Jedidiah leaned forward. “He can’t hurt anyone anymore, Mrs. Hawkins, because I put him in jail. Now what did you mean, she didn’t see anything?”
“Well, she didn’t. I thought he would come after me.” She lay back on the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “Good Lord, all this time I thought he was after me.”
Jedidiah and Nate exchanged glances. “Why would he do that, ma’am?” Nate asked.
“Because I saw him. I saw Wayne kill his brother.” She looked from one to the other. “I ran away, and he shouted after me. I left town as quickly as I could. I thought he would kill me, too.”
“Caldwell killed his own brother?” Nate exclaimed.
“Wayne said something strange to Susannah,” Jedidiah reflected. “He said ‘we both know you were the only woman there that night.’ Could he have seen you running away, Mrs. Hawkins, and thought you were Susannah?”
“It’s possible. It was very dark.”
“That would explain a lot of things,” Nate said.
“Yeah,” Jedidiah agreed. “Wayne set Susannah up as the scapegoat, but he thought she had seen him, so he’s been trying to kill her before she could talk.”
“But why would Wayne kill his own brother?” Nate asked.
“Brick knew about the senator,” Mrs. Hawkins said.
Jedidiah leaned forward with interest. “What about the senator?”
The woman bit her lip and looked from one man to the other. “Senator Caldwell will kill me, too, if I tell you.”
“He won’t hurt you.” Jedidiah laid a hand on hers. “Please tell us everything, Mrs. Hawkins. If the senator is involved in this, he needs to be punished just like Wayne.”
“He’s too powerful,” she said, shaking her head. “Brick tried to take him on, and look where he ended up.”
“What do you mean, Brick tried to take him on?” Nate asked.
She shook her head again. “I can’t tell you. He’ll find me and kill me, I know it. I’m sorry.”
“Mrs. Hawkins,” Jedidiah said quietly. “I can arrest you for withholding information about a murder. But I’m not going to do that. What I am going to tell you is this: an innocent woman is going to be convicted of a murder she did not commit if you don’t help us. Senator Caldwell will get away with what he’s done, and you will never be free of him.”
“He might find out the truth someday,” Nate added. “What if it comes out that it was you who was there that night, not Miss Calhoun? The senator is a powerful man. He’d be able to find you.”
“He’ll never be arrested,” Mrs. Hawkins said sadly.
“It would be easier if we had proof,” Jedidiah agreed. “Of course, if you could tell us why—”
“Oh, I have proof,” she interrupted. “I took all Mr. Brick’s letters, the ones he hid in the floorboard of the porch. I came back early the next morning and collected them. I was sure Wayne had gotten to them, but he hadn’t found them at all.”
“What letters?” Nate prodded.
She hesitated. “If I tell you, you have to promise to protect me,” she said. “The senator might still get away with what he’s done. He has enough friends in high places to do it.”
“I promise,” Jedidiah said. “We won’t let him get near you.”
“We’ll set you up with a fresh start someplace,” Nate said. “But you’ll have to testify in court.”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “I don’t want him to see me. I can’t do that.”
“Mrs. Hawkins, please,” Jedidiah said softly. “If you don’t do what’s right, the woman I love is going to be convicted of something she didn’t do. They will sentence her to hang.”
She hesitated.
“Please, Mrs. Hawkins,” Jedidiah pleaded. “Do the right thing.”
“It’s the only way this will ever end,” Nate added.
The battle she fought with herself was clearly reflected on her face.
Jedidiah and Nate waited for her decision as the minutes ticked by, and it grew closer to the hour when Susannah would leave for Denver.
“Time to leave, Miss Calhoun,” Sheriff MacElroy said, unlocking the door to the cell.
“Is it one o’clock already?” Susannah looked around for some sort of clock, but there was none back here among the cells.
“Closer to twelve-thirty, but the Senator’s ready to leave,” he said.
“But I can’t leave yet!” She dug in her heels, resisting to the most of her ability. Still the sheriff managed to get her from the cell block to the main office.
“You’ve got to get to Denver,” the sheriff reminded her.
“Not without Jedidiah.” She grabbed his chair, holding it with both hands as he dragged both her and the chair toward the door.
“Sheriff, what is the holdup here?” the senator asked, appearing in the doorway. He flipped open an engraved gold pocket watch and noted the hour.
“Just getting the prisoner ready to travel,” MacElroy said, smiling politely despite his difficulty in removing Susannah from the room.
“I’m not going anywhere without Jedidiah!” Susannah declared. She let go of the chair with an abruptness that made the sheriff stumble. He lost his grip on her, and she grabbed his keys off his belt and darted back into the jail. As she passed, she scooped the spare set of keys off the wall, then shut herself in the cell and locked the door.
“Miss Calhoun!” the sheriff shouted, storming after her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
She tucked the keys beneath the pillow on her cot, then sat on it, arms folded. “I’m waiting for Jedidiah. He’ll be along directly.”
“Young woman,” said the senator, following MacElroy into the cell block, “you are embarrassing yourself with this display. Have you no dignity?”
“Not a bit,” she replied.
The senator whirled on the sheriff. “Get her out of there!” he demanded.
“I can’t. She’s got the keys.”
“Then get her out another way. I don’t care how you do it, just get her out of there!”
MacElroy stared at the senator with angry eyes. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but then he spun on his heel and stalked from the jail.
Senator Caldwell turned to look at Susannah. She met the blazing hate in his eyes with a fulminating glare of her own.
“You have been entirely too much trouble, Miss Calhoun,” the senator said in a silky tone that sent dread twisting down her spine. “When this is over, you will regret ever crossing me.”
“I already regret it, Senator. You’ve turned my life upside down with your false accusations and pushy ways.”
“We’ll see how haughty you are when you’re convicted of murder,” Caldwell hissed. “I intend to put all the power at my disposal behind the prosecution.”
Fear slithered down her spine at the evil twisting his featur
es.
MacElroy came back into the cell block. “I sent for the blacksmith,” he said. “He ought to be able to take the door off the hinges so we can get both Miss Calhoun and your nephew out.”
“Excellent.” The senator consulted his pocket watch again. “Perhaps we will get to Denver on time after all.”
“I’m afraid you may have to delay your trip, Senator,” Jedidiah said from the doorway. “I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere today.”
Susannah sprang to her feet and gripped the bars of her cell. Jedidiah sent her a quick, reassuring glance, then fixed his attention back on Senator Caldwell.
“What nonsense is this?” the senator exclaimed, his silver brows arching. “Have you come to rescue Miss Calhoun, Marshal? I assure you, she’s no longer your concern.”
“I’ve come to take you into custody, Senator,” Jedidiah replied. He came fully into the room.
The senator laughed. “If this is some deluded attempt to stop me from reporting your activities to your superiors, Marshal Brown, I must say it is a pitiful endeavor on your part.”
“No, Senator, this has nothing to do with me. And I doubt my superiors will listen to a word you have to say once the truth gets out.” Jedidiah held up a packet of letters tied together with a worn red ribbon. “Do you recognize these, Senator? You should, since you wrote them.”
The senator paled, but he maintained his bravado. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Marshal.”
Jedidiah stepped forward. “Senator Morris Caldwell, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of your nephew, Brick Caldwell.”
“This is preposterous!”
“These letters are proof that your nephew was blackmailing you. He knew about a certain young lady—a very young lady, in fact—who had given birth to your child. Had this knowledge become public, your career would have been ruined.” Jedidiah tapped the bundle of letters with one finger. “There is also an allegation that you may have forced this young lady, who is a member of a wealthy family in Washington, D.C., to have a relationship with you by threatening to ruin her father’s reputation and his political career.”
The Lawman's Surrender: The Calhoun Sisters, Book 2 Page 22
